50 Best Golf Tips to Improve Your Golf Game

50 Golf Tips to Improve Your Golf Game

Are you looking for actionable golf tips to help you shoot lower golf scores?

Today’s article is a list of golf tips, drills, lessons, and personal experiences that helped me break 100 when I was a beginner. I didn’t just stop there though. I went on to become a scratch golfer in only a few years after picking up the golf clubs to learn the sport for the first time.

Use these 50 golf tips in your daily practice routine and during your golf rounds. Study this list and re-read it multiple times.

The first thing you need to do before any golf shot is properly align yourself to your target. Most beginners hit poor golf shots because they aren’t aligned correctly. Make sure you align your feet parallel to your golf ball aim line.

Tip 2 – Putt to a Coin

Set down a quarter about one foot in front of your golf and make putts to this coin trying to hit the coin. Move back in one foot increments every time you can successfully hit the coin 3 times in a row.

Tip 3 – Practice Chipping from Home

You can build up your chipping distance control skills from home by placing a folded towel in the hall way and making chip shots from different distances. Attempt to hit the towel 3 times in a row from one distance before switching it up.

Tip 4 – 2 Book Putting Drill

To build a fundamental straight back straight through putting stroke, set down two thick books on the ground and space them apart enough for your putter face to fit between them. These books act as guide rails keeping your putting stroke straight. Work on this drill every day from your house and then take it to the putting green and start stroking putts by placing a ball between the books.

Tip 5 – 100 Putt Warm Up

Every time you step onto the practice green, start off by sinking 100 putts from 3 feet. Lay down your putter with one end starting at the hole and it should measure out 3 feet for you. Putters are usually 34 inches in length making it a good measuring stick. Start with flat putts and work on adding in breaking putts from 3 feet.

Tip 6 – 100 Putts Made in a Row

After you’ve made 100 putts from 3 feet for a few weeks, step it up another level and try making 100 putts from 3 feet in a row to complete the drill before moving on to another golf putting drill.

Tip 7 – Stretch Before You Golf

Take an hour to research and build a stretching routine that you can perform each day when you get to the golf course or driving range. Stretching will improve your flexibility which can add distance to your golf shots in addition to helping you prevent injury. Don’t take this tip lightly!

Tip 8 – Find a Partner

Find yourself a golf practice partner you can practice with each day and who will hold you accountable. Having a golf partner will help you push each other and hold fun competitions to get better each day.

Tip 9 – Limit Your Golf Practice Swings

While it’s good to take a few practice swings before your golf shot, be careful about overdoing it. Trust your swing, step up and hit the golf shot. Taking too many swings can slow down play as well as show that you lack confidence in your swing. Competitors will take notice of this.

Tip 10 – Eat a Healthy Snack

Before going out to play golf on the course, eat a healthy snack for energy. This can help you late in your golf round when you normally might start breaking down from fatigue. You can also snack throughout the golf round to help give you energy. Golf is taxing on the body and fatigue can cause your fundamentals to start suffering and breaking down, hurting your scores

Tip 11 – Driver Swing Speed

Your driver’s swing speed is related to your release before impact. One way to generate a fast release is by swinging smooth and relaxed. Trying to overpower the golf ball can cause you to tense up and cause poor release, hurting your golf swing more than it helps. Work on building that wrist cock in your back swing and how to time the release into impact so that you maximize club head speed and hit your drives further

Tip 12 – 500 Reps for Success

When you practice your golf game, you have many skill areas you could work on. (For example: putting, chipping, pitching, bunker play, short irons, mid irons, and driver). Pick one area to focus on during practice and complete 500 reps of different drills. If you choose chipping, then stay at the practice green hitting all kinds of chip shots and completing chipping drills until you’ve completed 500 total reps! This is similar concept to how Michael Jordan would shoot 500 free throws in practice or 500 three pointers. High volume of reps is one of the quickest ways to improve your golf skills

Tip 13 – Set Goals at Different Time Intervals

Improving your golf game takes time. Be patient but also work hard! Set 10 day, 30 day, and 120 goals to work hard towards. Then evaluate your golf game at each time point to see how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go to get your skill level where you want it to be. An example goal is that you want to be able to make 75% of putts from 6 feet away from the hole on average. Maybe currently you can only sink 4 out of 10 putts from 6 feet.

Tip 14 – Worse Ball Golf Challenge

This is a great drill for building confidence when you get into bad situations and helping you stay positive. Next time you play a round of golf, try hitting 2 shots and play the worse shot of the two. Repeat this for every golf shot all the way to the green until you sink the putt to finish the hole off. Tiger Woods once did this and shot par. Be like Tiger (:

Tip 15 – Build a Pre-Putting Routine

To be a great putter, you need to have great focus. One way to focus on every putt and get dialed in is by having a pre-putting routine you follow. Take an hour today to build your pre putting routine so that you can step up to every putt with confidence.

Tip 16 – Pressure is Self Created

When you start feeling pressure in golf, ask yourself why? Why do you feel pressure? Where is your mind at and what are you doing to pressure yourself. It’s self created. When you play a practice golf round, you usually don’t care what happens and so there is no pressure. But once you start playing a tournament, you’re mindset changes and you start worrying about things you usually care less about, creating pressure on yourself. Learn to stay mellow and not create expectations!

Tip 17 – Master the Pitch Golf Shot

There will be times when you miss the green by 10 yards or more. This could be short, long, left, or right of the green. To save par still, you’re going to need to have solid pitching skills that can get the ball onto the green and close to the hole despite being so far away from the green. Work on building your pitching skills by dropping balls around the practice green from further out. Don’t always just chip from the fringe or a few feet into the rough. Walk 10 yards or more away from the green and set down a bucket of balls working on your golf pitching skills.

Grab my golf skills assessment challenge and see how good your golf skills are in different areas of the game: Driving, Iron Play, Chipping, Putting, etc.

Tip 18 – Feet Alignment Check

Set up for a golf shot at the driving range and before hitting the shot, pause. Take your golf club and set it down on the ground to test feet alignment. See how accurate you aligned your feet with your target and learn from it.

Tip 19 – Use Practice Drills that Simulate Pressure

If you’re someone who struggles under pressure, then consider adding in specific practice drills to your practice routine that simulate pressure you’ll face on the course. An example method for simulating pressure is having some sort of punishment incorporated into the drill. You could set up the circle putting drill where you have to make 5 putts in a row or else you start over (the punishment).

Tip 20 – Lag Putting from 50 Feet Away

To improve your lag putting skills, set up a putt that’s 50 feet away from the hole and work on getting 50 putts within 3 feet or closer of the hole. Add pressure by trying to get 50 out of 50 putts within 3 feet. If you mess up you start over. This will help you learn distance control from 50 feet away. Then adjust the distance to 40 feet, 60 feet, etc to train your putting distance control.

Tip 21 – Focus on the Center of the Green

On Par 3’s as well as approach shots, focus on hitting to the center of the green and forgo aiming at the pin. Take the higher percentage shot and you’ll find yourself hitting more greens in regulation.

Tip 22 – Have Fun

When you hit a good golf shot or sink a clutch putt, it’s okay to get excited. Make golf fun and don’t always be uptight and tense! Enjoy the game you are blessed with the opportunity to play because some people lack the physical health to be able to play.

Tip 23 – Plan Out Your Practice Time

Before heading to the golf course, determine what practice drills you want to complete, how many reps, etc. so that you have a game plan to follow and make your golf practice time productive. I follow a golf practice routine I designed called the Breaking 70 Practice Plan and it’s helped hundreds of others. Learn more about this golf practice routine as well as the Breaking 80 and Breaking 90/100 plans by clicking here.

Tip 24 – Practice Your Golf Swing Distance Control

Work on hitting different distances with the same golf club by controlling the length of your swing and keeping the same tempo. Start with woods and work your way down to wedges. Align yourself with a target so you can focus on hitting straight in addition to hitting different distances.

Tip 25 – Utilize Worksheets

How will you know if you’re improving your golf skills if you’re not tracking data? Don’t practice blind. Use worksheets to track your reps, sets, and performance for different golf practice drills.

Finish with your hands low if you want to keep the ball down, and finish with the hands high to get the golf ball up in the air.

Tip 27 – Play a Fun Game with a Friend

Find a friend who will play a fun game at the golf course with your for 18 holes. Consider the match play game where if you lose the hole, your opponent also gets to take a club from your bag, limiting your options for the next hole. For example, he could take your driver, forcing you to use woods instead. Disallow removal of the putter to keep things fair.

Tip 28 – Stay Active

If you can’t make it to the golf course for a few weeks or months, find other ways to stay active and keep your muscles loose. Golf is a game of muscle, and when you’re tense you’ll struggle to swing freely. You also face the possibility of injury. Consider lifting light weights at the gym that simulate golf related movements.

Tip 29 – Golf Swing Build Up

Start by hitting little pitch and chip shots to get your contact down before attempting to hit 300 yard drives. Work your way up starting with small swings and building up to a full swing.

Tip 30 – Putting Tempo Drill

Putt with your eyes closed from different distances to get a feel for tempo and distance control. Before opening your eyes try and guess whether the putt felt short, just right, or too far. This is a great drill to ingrain feel into your putting stroke and help you judge distance control better.

Tip 31 – Say No to Strong Grip Pressure

Strong grip pressure on the golf club is never a good thing. As the old adage states “feel like you’re hold a bird in the palm of your hands”

Tip 32 – Build a Strong Foundation

Never stop working on your basic fundamentals and set up position. The majority of errors begin before you even swing the golf club.

In match play tournaments, Tiger Woods used to lay up off the tee so that he would be further out from the green, allowing him to have first go at hitting the green. He would proceed to stick his approach shot next to the pin, placing pressure on his opponent to hit a good shot or else lose the hole. How many times have you felt some pressure after seeing your opponent do well? Learn the subtle tactics you can do that don’t involve trash talking your opponent.

Tip 34 – Create a Mental Image of the Perfect Golf Shot

Picture the perfect shot in your mind before stepping up and hitting the ball. Positive mental imagery creates confidence that follows into your golf swing and produces better performance.

Tip 35 – Rotate the Body, Don’t Slide for Better Contact

If you’re struggling to make solid contact, remember to rotate the body around during the golf swing and not slide. Beginner’s often have the tendency of sliding their body weight around which can throw off the swing plane and cause poor contact.

Tip 36 – Wet Grass Requires a Strong Follow Through

Remember to follow through with a little extra power when hitting from wet grass. The wet grass will grab your club face, slowing down the swing and shutting the face to a closed position.

Tip 37 – Practice this Birdie Putt Golf Drill

Drop 9 golf balls at random spots on the practice green and pick a hole to putt to. Treat each of these 9 balls as separate birdie attempts and see how well you fare for the 9 hole challenge. An under par score of -3 or better is really good. Even par is also a good golf score! Get aggressive, trying to make each putt but don’t get so aggressive that you create a 3 putt situation.

Tip 38 – Build Muscle Memory by Completing 100 Golf Swings Per Day

When you get done taking a lesson from a golf instructor, you’re going to have several new swing thoughts to work on. Perform 100 golf swings per day from home or at the driving range to help groove your new golf swing. Over time, you’ll build in muscle memory for these new movements and be able to call on this improved golf swing out on the course during a live round.

Tip 39 – Always Practice Golf Sportsmanship

Whether you win or lose, it’s always important to maintain a positive attitude and show good sportsman ship to others in your playing group. Finish the 18th tee by removing your hat, shaking your opponents hand, and saying thanks for playing today.

Tip 40 – Keep Hydrated

A four hour golf round burns lots of calories and depletes your water tank. Keep hydrated by bringing along bottled water or stopping at the pro shop at the turn. Being well hydrated helps keep your muscles and body loose which is essential for a smooth golf swing.

Tip 41 – Keep a Personal Best Record Sheet

Make golf practice more fun by maintain a worksheet that tracks your personal best scores for different golf practice drills. For example, track how many putts you’ve made in a row from 6 feet and try to best this score each week when you have some spare time at the end of your practice session.

Tip 42 – Read Golf Books on the Mental Game

To master the mental game of golf, you should read golf books that focus on mental training. There are a lot of good reads out there on Amazon you can purchase for under $10. We also have a mental game eBook called the Golf Mental Game Blueprint you can check out!

Tip 43 – Focus on One Swing Thought at a Time

There are many different golf swing drills out there that work on different aspects of the golf swing. This can be overwhelming and create more stress than it does good. Instead, focus on one golf drill or one swing thought at a time to help you improve your swing in phases. Don’t spread yourself thin trying to cover everything at once.

Tip 44 – Use Chipping Practice Rings for Improving Up & Downs

One of my favorite training aids is a target zone ring that you lay around a hole on the practice green. It creates a circle around the hole, challenging your skill level to putt or chip the ball within that ring. The chipping rings come in different sizes. You could start with a 6 foot diameter ring that gives you a 3 foot radius around the hole for mastering chip shots within 3 feet of the hole. This training aid will help you get up and down more frequently.

Tip 45 – Swing Easy

Nothing good results from an overpowering golf swing. The harder you swing, the less control you tend to have which can lead to golf shots spraying in all directions. The professional golfers on the PGA Tour generally hit around 80% of their full power. Hitting with more control can result in better ball contact which will actually increase your distances more so than power.

Tip 46 – Be Careful Not to Swing Too Easy

On the flip side, be careful about slowing down your golf swing and swinging too easy. This can result in poor golf shots as well. Find the 70-80% swing power tempo that allows you to have solid control over your club.

Tip 47 – Play a Golf Round Without Driver/Woods/Hybrids

Try playing a 9 or 18 hole round of golf using only your irons, wedges, and putter. Track how many fairways you hit and see if this is a higher amount than normal. Ideally, hitting irons should give you increased accuracy while sacrificing distance. You may find that you hit more greens as a result of hitting more fairways.

Tip 48 – Make Every Range Session Count

Have a plan when you head to the driving range of what you’re going to work on. Are you going there to focus on the golf swing mechanics? Or are you going to work on a specific club? Set up a game plan before you purchase the range balls. Avoid mindlessly hitting balls with no real purpose behind each golf shot.

Tip 49 – Get Serious from the Sane

Build up your bunker shot skills to cut down a few extra strokes from your score. On average, we find ourselves facing 2 to 3 bunker shots each golf round. By improving your bunker shot skills, you can get up and down for par and save the hole from turning into a nightmare.

Tip 50 – Make 25 Putts from 6 Feet to End Practice

After you finish a round of golf or session at the driving range, make your way back to the putting green and sink 25 putts from different 6 foot putts. One day focus on flat putts from 6 feet. Another day focus on left to right breaking putts and then finish up the week by focusing on right to left breaking putts from 6 feet. Ending practice with these extra reps will greatly improve your putting inside 10 feet helping you to save more pars and sink more birdies within this distance range.

Best Golf Practice Routines to Follow

Thanks for smashing through this ultimate guide full of the best golf tips for beginners. I hope you found a few tips that will help your golf game this season whether they were chipping tips to save more pars around the green or mental game tips to stop losing strokes under pressure.

Golf Practice Guides strives to be the best online golf improvement resource for golfers. Through blog posts, audio podcasts, videos, and more, the average golfer can expand their knowledge of the game and learn how to improve. Stop by our How to Break 80 Blog Series as well as the Golf Practice Guides Podcast that runs Monday through Friday. If you have a golf question you want answered on the show go to Ask Nick via the menu navigation above & record your question! Thanks for your support.